Thanks for writing this. I especially enjoyed the videos of the kid at the basketball game and the guy flexing his muscles.

I see that you are a therapist, so perhaps you have experience working with men who have issues such as the ones you describe.

I find it odd, though, that you see fit to describe the entire gay male population this way. I don’t know what filter you are using when you see the world, but the overwhelming population of gay men I see are far from the body-obsessed ones you write about. In fact, there are so many overweight guys that they have formed their own subgroup and given themselves a name: bears. Not only that, but there are tons of gay men who want nothing to do with the gym-toned bodies and are attracted exclusively to these bears. There are also many young gay men who seek older men for long-term relationships, wanting nothing to do with the younger guys you describe.

As for “destroying the gay community” with an abundance of the “shirtless selfie,” all I can say is that that is a very harsh statement. I may understand it if you said that smoking, AIDS, unprotected sex, or drug use was “destroying the gay community.” But “destroying the gay community” with the “shirtless selfie”? That especially doesn’t make sense if a person includes women when talking about the “gay community.” They are half the population of the earth, and half the population of the gay community. Did you forget that? How is the “shirtless selfie” destroying that part of our gay community?